After Atletico Madrid booked their spot in the 2016 UEFA Champions League final, fellow Spanish side and neighbours Real Madrid were confirmed as their opponent 24 hours later after they defeated Manchester City 1-0 on aggregate to set up a repeat of the 2014 final.It is always deduced that the best teams make the final of such a prestigious tournament but one might argue that the current Real Madrid team are one of the worst to get to this stage of the competition in the past decade. Despite not playing in a high level given the kind of team they are, Real Madrid managed to reach the UCL final in what I call the easiest possible route I’ve seen for a club of such calibre.In the UEFA Champions League tournament, a team will have to go through 4 stages to get to the final which are the Group stage, the Round of 16, the Quarter final and the Semifinal, Real Madrid didn’t pass through any of this stages without getting one of the easiest possible teams to play for a big club like them. Their luck played a huge role in them getting to the Champions League final this season as their football isn’t sufficient.Starting from the group stage, Real Madrid got PSG from France, Malmo for Sweden and Shakhtar Donetsk from Ukraine, they eased past the group as expected, coming out tops but it was just the group stage anyway. However, their luck didn’t just end there as they got another easy opponent, AS Roma from Italy in the Round of 16, a team which they beat both home and away although not convincingly.After the round of 16, 8 teams were desperately waiting for the Quarter final draw and because of the luck Real Madrid have had recently in the Champions League, most football fans predicted that they’d get one of the easiest teams, Wolfsburg precisely. No one was surprised at the end of the draw after Real Madrid were drawn with Wolfsburg just as almost everyone predicted. They lost the first leg 2-0 away from home but went on to make a nice comeback in the second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu to win 3-2 on aggregate and book a ticket to the semifinal.The four teams in the semifinal, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, Manchester City and Real Madrid were to be drawn again and of course Man City are the weakest among these four so most football fans once again predicted that Real Madrid would get them as they were the easiest opponent of that round. Once again, no surprises as Real Madrid would play Man City in the semifinal, a game they won 1-0 on aggregate to progress to the final.The point is that Real Madrid didn’t play against a single team that could match their ability en route to the final. All the teams they faced are inferior to Los Blancos and that is easily the main reason they’re currently in the final. Take a look at Barcelona for instance, in a bad phase and after beating Arsenal in the previous round, they were drawn against Atletico Madrid in the Quarter finals, a team that poses the best defence in Europe, that uniqueness is the reason Atleti are in the final right now. Bayern Munich were made to play Juventus and also Atletico Madrid while Atletico Madrid themselves worked so hard to get to where they are after they suffered against Barcelona and Bayern Munich.The most amazing part of this is that despite getting AS Roma, Wolfsburg and Manchester City, Real Madrid always get the luck to play the first leg away from home, something that is really a big advantage to them and played a huge role in them qualifying over Wolfsburg and Manchester City, their luck is unreal.From a normal point of view, it is valid to say Real Madrid do not deserve to be in the final as they have been playing below par and have been lucky to be getting these second-class and third-class teams. The most pressing fact is that despite getting these easy opponents Real Madrid still found it hard to easily walk past them as expected and that says a lot about how they’ve been playing.They managed to beat AS Roma both home and away but thanks to poor finishing from Roma’s attacking men, they spurned a lot of clear cut chances that would’ve been sufficient to knock out Los Blancos. Also in the Quarters, they couldn’t even score a goal against Wolfsburg and conceded two playing terribly, just a Tad lucky not to concede more than that, they went on to win 3-0 against a Wolfsburg team that weren’t even playing football. In the recent triumph against Manchester City, Real Madrid put up a lacklustre performance in the first leg and got a 0-0 draw at the Etihad and even needed an own goal in the second leg to go through over a Man City team that were far from being good, Man City were horrible and didn’t even press for a goal and Real Madrid were also Mediocre to win by just one goal.It is logical to state that Real Madrid would’ve been kicked out of the Champions League earlier on had they played against a top-class European team, this is close to being a fact. If they got Bayern Munich in the semifinal and put up the same performances they’ve been putting up of recent it might as well end in a rout against them. Two teams are in the final but it is very clear that only one deserved to be there judging from how they worked to get there and that team is Atletico Madrid, it would be an injustice by the football gods if they fail to beat Real Madrid in the final as they deserve a reward for their efforts of knocking out two teams that are superior to them.
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